Google+ Reaches 500 Million Users, 135 Million Active Users

Search engine giant integrates Google+ Communities.

Google has confirmed that its social network, Google+, boasts 135 million active users, with the search engine giant introducing a new feature as a result.

In a move to attract more groups to make Google+ their social network of choice, Google+ Communities will be introduced to the service, which integrates group functions.

"We see Google+ Communities as the next logical step for groups of people that have already formed on Google+, and those yet to form," Bradley Horowitz, Google+ vice president for product, told CNET. "From the beginning of Google+ we've seen communities grow organically on the platform. Photographers, chefs, knitters, techies, you name it, they're all people who have come together to talk about the things they really care about."

Google also announced that 500 million users have created profiles, 235 million of which have at least utilized one of its features, while 135 million visit plus.google.com monthly. The company had announced in September that the figure was 100 million.

Facebook, which boasts 1 billion active monthly users and 600 million mobile users, was recently criticized by Google's Bradley Horowitz, who is the social network's VP of product. He stressed that the former is a "social network of the past", with its advertisements in particular angering users due to being intrusive.

Source: tomsguide.com